


Life's alright in Devil Town (We're all dead in Devil Town)

by lbelaqua



Category: Half-Life
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Stream of Consciousness, alt title: gordon has an identity crisis, really short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25371667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lbelaqua/pseuds/lbelaqua
Summary: What does the hero of the Resistance do when there’s no more Resistance to spearhead?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Life's alright in Devil Town (We're all dead in Devil Town)

**Author's Note:**

> My brain gave me this entire thing as I was trying to fall asleep. The title is from Devil Town by Cavetown.

The Combine is gone, and Gordon is happy. The people he loves no longer have to live in constant fear of discovery. People aren’t being maimed and mutilated into soldiers or zombies or worse. The Earth and its precious few remaining resources are safe, and Gordon Freeman is happy.

Isn’t he? Since coming out of stasis, since the Resonance Cascade really, this is what he’s wanted. This is what he’s fought for. He _is_ happy, and yet…

He watches as Alyx and Barney and Dr. Kleiner carve out their places in this new world. It takes him a while to realize how lost he is. It hadn’t hit him at first (nothing had, really, besides the sheer exhaustion that dropped on him like a ton of bricks as soon as the adrenaline wore off), but he doesn’t have a place in the world like everyone around him seems to. All he’d ever done was try to take the Combine down, to free the Earth, ever since the Resonance Cascade -

But that was just it, wasn’t it? The Resonance Cascade. Before it, he had been a doctor of theoretical physics. He’d followed the path set out for him by parents, teachers, society… from high school to university, then onto a prestigious job at Black Mesa as the youngest scientist in the building. Few breaks, fewer friends. No communication with his family. His job was all he’d had, so he’d poured himself into it. Then the Resonance Cascade occurred, and he’d barely had time to think about keeping himself alive, much less where his future was going to take him. He’d fought and killed his way out of Black Mesa and then through the streets of City 17 as the hero of the Resistance. Now the Combine is gone, taking with it Gordon’s sense of purpose and leaving him with nothing but PTSD, a morphine addiction, and a barely-functional HEV suit.


End file.
